Some tapes not working

[mrscary]

When I put some tapes in my ADR2 - they do not "spin up" and the Remote storage manager thinks that there is nothing in the drive. Other tapes work fine though - any ideas anyone?

The tapes in question have been used in the past - and do not appear to be damaged in any way.

M.

Hollingside Technologies, Making Technology work for you.

http://www.hollingside.com

 

[ch2s]

Did you open the door to make sure they havent despooled (is the tape still under the door)?

 

[mrscary]

YEah - the tape is there under the door. They look just like all the working ones.
Tis very odd.

M.

Hollingside Technologies, Making Technology work for you.

http://www.hollingside.com

 

[gwootton]

With the tape in the drive, have you tried telling the RSM to "inventory" the drive, which should cause it to try and detect any media inside the drive? If it still shows the tapes as not found, you may wish to try the Tape@once software and see if it can recognize the tape.

 

[mrscary]

Ok - I will try that when I get back to my office.

However, the thing that confuses me (it doesn't take much) is that with all the other tapes as soon as I put a tape in, the tape spins up and the RSM indicates that there is a tape in the drive. With these select few tapes that don't appear to work, they never spin up - and the RSM insists that the drive is empty.

M.


Hollingside Technologies, Making Technology work for you.

http://www.hollingside.com

 

[mrscary]

Found the problem. The RSM wouldn't inventory them - and I had given up on the tapes. They didn't appear to have despooled as there was still tape under the door.

So - with nothing to lose, I took the tapes to pieces and had a look - along with a known working tape. I had to be very careful here - as ADR tapes are now irreplacable!

And the known working tape had equal amounts of tape on each spool - but the non-working ones had most of the tape on the lower spool.
So I carefully wound the tape back to the other spool. I didn't do it all the way - as I got bored (and got cramp in my thumbs) - but I had obviously done enough as when I put the tape back into the drive the drive auto retensioned it - and now it works just fine!

Any ideas what might have caused this?

Also - any ideas where to get new tapes from?

M

Hollingside Technologies, Making Technology work for you.

http://www.hollingside.com

 

[ch2s]

How did you rewind it yourself? Did you touch the actual tape? any dirt/oils that might have gotten on the tape will build up on the head and may result in drive problems.

You can get used and maybe some new tapes on ebay.

 

[mrscary]

No - didn't touch the tape, and was very careful to do this in a clean environment - despite the larger of my two dogs taking a keen interest!

Inside the tape, the spools have large plastic hubs that you can rotate quite easily.

M.

Hollingside Technologies, Making Technology work for you.

http://www.hollingside.com